I really wanted to hold onto it because of California appreciation but I cut my losses - Oakland and Berkeley heavily favor tenants and a non-paying tenant can live there for months and it's a nightmare to evict them. 

Then I also give them a cut of the profits at the end.

Same thing can happen with not paying environmental fines in Baltimore City which can be not cutting your grass and start at $50. 

The fact that rent does not even cover the mortgage tells me that this might of been a deal to avoid from the start and may want to cut your losses..always need multiple exit strategies Rule #1. 

There are lots of upsides - our mortgage payment was cut by a third and we were able to find a property that will appreciate quickly as we update the home.

Ask a family member that trusts / knows  you to co-sign with you on the deal and cut them in or buy them out on terms that make sense for their level of participation. 

A better way to do this would be to get your lead/borrower to sign a compensation agreement that states "so and so has agreed that Company ABC has earned X commission fee based off loan amount of the transaction involving 1234 Street to be paid for at closing." then title will cut you a check.BE CAREFUL -> you can create a bad rep for yourself if you just charge referral fees to borrowers for without telling them what you're doing.

Usually, when someone asks "is it easier to do x verus y" it means they are trying to find a short cut to making money, so if that's the real reason for asking, then please know that all of this requires very hard work and there is no get rich quick like most of the newbie wholesalers are hoping for.

Seems like this would cut your potential customer base in half.

Seems like cutting your losses is the best thing here.